“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the C.S. Lewis classic tale of good versus evil turned Disney-Walden Media film is the top selling DVD video so far in 2006. Totals topping in at over 11 million sales makes the film the king of the heap surpassing the previous record holder, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”
With Narnia clearly the one to catch, Disney can now boast of having five of the 10 top-selling DVDs for 2006. The others are “Bambi II,” “Chicken Little,” the classic “Lady and The Tramp” and Jodie Foster’s mile-high nail-biter “Flightplan.”
My god what a travesty this was. How to take a magical unique children’s story and turn it into a chunderfest of epic proportions. It was so aching to be Harry Potter does Lord of the Rings… a pre-made franchise which could stretch to 7 films! I can just picture the marketing execs rubbing their hands with glee.
What was so bad? Mockney beavers? New Zealand, whilst gorgeous, is completely miscast as the petite quaint Narnia. The script was a mess, trying to force in as many action scenes as possible, in the process losing all the wonder and charm of the original story.
Such a shame. All I can hope is that the success of the film will lead as many people as possible back to the wonderful books.
I always find it so odd how so many people who love the same source material can have such varied reactions to film based on said material. I’ve not read the book(s), but thoroughly enjoyed the film … and yet my best friend who *has* read and loved the boks, said it was one of the greatest films he’s ever seen, to say nothing of being one of the most spot-on adaptations he’s ever seen. And then, there’s the above comment … One must wonder, though, if eleven million people bought the DVD, a good percentage of them has probably read the book … so how far off could the film be?
Personally I thought there was way too much violence in this film for it to be billed as a children’s film. I don’t remember there being that much in the novel, however it was a long time ago when I read them… I am a fan of the books, but I prefer “The Horse and His Boy” and “The Magicians Nephew” to “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”.
I have to agree with karl: it was not the best adaptation of a book into a movie. As for Eric Troup‘s friend, they need to re-read the book. There were many things changed: for instance, the entire opening scenes of the bombing of London.
Also (and no, I’m not a religious fanatic), but I feel there were many of the subtle religious hintings from the book that were left out of the movie. Although it can be argued that C.S. Lewis wasn’t attempting to make parallels to the Bible, I believe it can also be argued that it may have been done subconsciously. No, I don’t feel that it should have been “in your face”, either, since that also would not have been true to the book.
Next time, Disney, stay true to the source material.
And, yes, I was the one in the theater complaining about LOTR, too.
Hmmm…
Well, not only have I read all the books in the Narnia Series (I can’t WAIT to see the Magicians Nephew), but most everything C.S. Lewis ever did (yes…including Mere Christianity) and I honestly think this movie came as close as Disney would allow to being true to the book.
Aslan is most obviously God and any reader of the Bible would know (or will be able to tell) that Prince Caspain is none other than a re-telling of the story of David (Kings). I was a huge fan of the BBC films; made of the 1st 4, (Caspain and Dawn Treader are grouped into one for the middle instalment) and would never have imagined that Disney would pick this series up.
I truly think Narnia will blast LOTR and Harry Potter out of the water as far as content. I would seriouly urge any fan of the movies to pick up the novels, they are short, written for kids and yes, contain lots and lots of violence (if you doubt read ahead to The Last Battle – makes LOTR look like the circus, and not to mention alot of PEOPLE just dying)
Judge fo yo self….